Categories

Resources

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Pat Robertson is much more than America's favorite fundamentalist madman. By way of Carpetbagger we find out exactly why Pat Robertson doesn't believe in a wall of separation between church and state-- he'd have to give $14.3 million dollars back to the government. In just 2 years Robertson's charity organization Operation Blessing saw their federal grants skyrocket from $108,000 to $14.4 million thanks to Bush's "faith-based" initiative.

Yes, that Operation Blessing, the same group whose planes were used to support Pat's most noble Christian endeavor-- supporting blood diamond mines while (allegedly) helping Rwandan refugees.

Far from the media’s gaze, Robertson has used the tax-exempt, nonprofit Operation Blessing as a front for his shadowy financial schemes, while exerting his influence within the GOP to cover his tracks. In 1994 he made an emotional plea on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire (now Congo). Reporter Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot later discovered that Operation Blessing’s planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Zaire’s then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

After a lengthy investigation, Virginia’s Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications." Yet when the office called for legal action against Robertson in 1999, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican, intervened with his own report, agreeing that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution. Two years earlier, while Virginia’s investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley’s campaign--Earley’s largest contribution. With Earley’s report came a sense of vindication. "From the very beginning," Robertson claimed, "we were trying to provide help and assistance to those who were facing disease and death in the war-torn, chaotic nation of Zaire."

Does anyone know someone working at the IRS? Methinks somebody is in dire need of an audit.

Better yet, next time one of Robertson's crazy rants gets picked up by the MSM let's see if we can force them to mention his $14 mil in federal grants and his close ties to madmen like Charles Taylor.